Yes, I’m talking about the weather here in Prescott!
Dozens of these (very photogenic) little things blow up to my front door every day.
And now we seem to have a mini- tumbleweed on the front porch settee.
Bring on the monsoon- we need rain!
Melancholy and iPhone Fun
Since I’ve been back, I’ve been catching up on life, and my photography work has consisted of culling and editing photos from Yellowstone and getting images edited and printed for my photography groups. I was also 2 or 3 weeks behind in Start to Finish and Be Still 52 (Kim Klassen’s classes), but knew I would have time to catch up soon.
A couple days ago I started going through the lessons I hadn’t done and found myself feeling inspired again to create a still life. One of the more recent lessons included a preset called melancholy– and a suggestion to revisit the whole wabi-sabi idea, which I loved. I enjoyed creating this image, which is very different from my usual shooting and processing style.
And now for a couple random iPhone photos. I didn’t take many photos this week, but did enjoy processing them.
This is the bridge (over a dry wash) that we cross when we walk the trail at Willow Lake. If you look closely, you can see the white southwestern prickly poppies that are in bloom along the trail. The basic edit was in Snapseed- and then I used one of the filters in Glaze (an app that I really don’t understand) and added some textures in Mextures, which also gave it a vignette.
The photo below was taken in our front yard and is a closeup of the flowers (and fruit?) of a spiky foundation planting in our flower bed. Now that it’s blooming, I notice this plant everywhere we go in Arizona. Last fall I cut off many of the dried stalks and put them in my old milk can on the front porch. You can see what they look like dried here. I edited the photo in Photo Wizard, which is a great app for basic editing (it even has a curves adjustment!), as well as having a zillion special filters and effects, from textures and vignettes to motion blur and a bathroom glass filter. I have yet to explore it fully- guess I need to go on another road trip!
I’m linking up with App-happy Wednesday again!
Moment of Stillness
I braved 50mph wind gusts on Earth Day to take this photo (among others), capturing this lavender in a brief moment of stillness.
App Happy!
I took this shot with my iPhone of one of the birdhouses in our backyard (left by the previous owner). It is perched on a piece of driftwood, and is very low to the ground. I haven’t seen any birds going in it, but I might be missing something. Do the quail or roadrunners fly up into it??? Seems like the opening is too small. My bird-knowledgeable friends need to help me out here.
Several apps were used as part of my process for this image. I forgot that I could take the shot in square mode, thus eliminating cropping it to a square afterward- so I needed to crop it in one of the apps. I used PicTapGo for this and also added a bit of warmth. I found myself really disliking the right side of the photo (rocks and an out-of-focus branch), so I then opened the photo in Snapseed and used the Tilt-Shift effect to blur out the unwanted parts of the image. Next, I added a texture in Mextures and a watercolor filter in Waterlogue. I finished it off by adding the word, Home, in Phonto. Five apps for one photo? Seems a bit extreme, but it worked for me this time.
As part of my quest to learn more about iPhoneography, I am linking up today with Barb’s new App-Happy Wednesday on Keeping With the Times. I’m eager to see what the other iPhoneographers have done- I’m such a newbie at all of this!
Note to my friends who take photos with their phones and are intimidated by the whole DSLR photography and editing thing:
This is seriously FUN! It is easy to edit your photos and make them look like little pieces of art. Most of the apps are free- and the ones that aren’t are inexpensive. Try it! You can figure out all of this in an afternoon. Join me on instagram. I’m #melindaroo.
Hippity Hop
Look who I found hopping around my front yard!
This was taken while sitting at my desk looking out through the window. She (I always think it’s a she) visits pretty regularly and hops from bush to bush, where she hides from the hawks and coyotes. I’m hoping to see babies!
HAPPY EASTER!
Textured with Kim Klassen’s waterfront 21. Linking up with Friday Finds.
Blossoms!
From our plum tree
Textures are my own, from one of Kim Klassen’s lessons a few months back.
The Thumb
The iconic Thumb Butte, visible almost everywhere in Prescott, was the subject for last night’s sunset shots. Although you can see it almost everywhere you go, I had no idea until a few months ago that you could see it from our yard. Granted, you have to stand in a small corner and lean over a bit to get a good look (or stand hunched over in the bathtub, and peek out the window through the branches of a tree . . .), but we DO have a view!
Here’s our house at sunset (yes, I took more house photos. . .). Look at those clouds!
And here is Thumb Butte at sunset.
Little Visitor
This little bird stayed at our sliding glass door for the longest time; I’m not sure if he could see in or was studying his reflection. Eventually, another came around, and they both flew off.
Waiting to see which of my friends will tell me what kind of bird it is. . .
Textured with several textures from Kim Klassen’s waterfront collection.
Early Morning Clouds
Outside
I had some GREAT news this week!
To back up, I enter a lot of photo blog contests. Please note that I did not say PHOTO contests- what I do is comment or tweet or Facebook share someone’s blog posting in order to be entered in a giveaway. I have never won.
Kim Klassen announced a giveaway last week. I almost didn’t enter this one, but I was in the mood- and I didn’t have to share on FB or tweet; I just had to share my 14 for 2014 (fourteen things I wanted to happen in 2014), and there were to be two winners (chosen randomly, I assume). The prize was a year’s membership in her Test Kitchen (a members only site where you have access to textures, brushes, storyboards etc. that Kim creates, as well as some tutorials and discounts on other products) AND a texture collection of your choice.
As you have guessed by now, I was one of the two winners. I am now a Test Kitchen member and a proud owner of Kim’s Waterfront texture collection. Yay! Thank you, Kim!
BTW, she let me know by commenting on my blog Monday- telling me to check HER blog and send her an e-mail. Whaaaat? It was very exciting to see my name there!
So that’s the good news! I’ve been in kind of a photo rut lately. This happens periodically, and I have learned to just go look for the light. But the light in our house isn’t terrific, and the outside light has been either harsh or flat (on the one cloudy day we had recently). The landscape is pretty brown and bare- and it just hasn’t been calling to me. Excuses, excuses! So today I just decided to embrace the harsh light and walk around outside with my camera. I used one of Kim’s storyboards to create a collage in Photoshop. Yes, I even took photos of my garage windows and roof. . .
Looking Back
I seldom take photos in our back yard. When you look out our back windows you see a nice patio, a low wall, some rocks, a couple birdhouses- and then an abrupt rock covered slope. One of this week’s Flickr topics is looking back, so I decided to do a literal interpretation and take a photo looking into the backyard. I actually looked UP and back and found a tree (ours? our upslope neighbors’?) which I liked silhouetted against the blue sky. I had fun doing a collage of two different photos of the same tree in color and black and white, then added two layers of anne and one of she loves you yeah from Kim Klassen.
I’m linking up with Friday Finds on kimklassencafe.com.
Catching up
Inspired by my friend, Carol’s posting of her overlooked (and gorgeous!) hummingbird photos, here are a few of my photos from the last couple weeks that didn’t make the blog:
Another view from our driveway – notice the P for Prescott on the hill-
A leaf on our snow day-
Two more driveway views (I’m lazy that way. . .), at sunrise-
Top photo textured with ecru from Kim Klassen; bottom photo textured with Mumbai, Depression Glass, and Brood from Jessica Drossin
When life gives you lemons . . .
After complaining on here yesterday about the fog, I went outside (in my bathrobe) and took this photo of a bare tree out front and tried to make the fog photoworthy.
Textures by Florabella.
Goodnight, Moon
Snowy Marigold
Our first snow seems to have finished off the last surviving bunch of marigolds, unwatered and forgotten, but still blooming out front.
Textured with several layers of Kim Klassen’s rue, altered to have golden tones.
Linking up with Texture Tuesday.
melinda anderson photography 